The wireless transmission of a signal representative of information in accordance with one or more wireless protocols (i.e., IEEE 802.11x, 3G, etc.) typically entails formatting the signal at the transmitting device, modulating the formatted signal over a baseband carrier, receiving the modulated signal at the receiving device and demodulating the modulated signal, whereupon the received signal may be processed further by the receiving device.
The formatted signal typically is modulated over a baseband carrier so that the resulting signal ideally would have a relatively small direct current (DC) component, if any. However, as a result of noise present in the transmission environment and/or changes in the characteristics of the transmitting equipment (resulting from, for example, heat in the components of the transmitting device), a significant DC component may be present in the received signal. Similarly, the components of the receiving device also may introduce a significant DC component into the received signal as it is processed.
A number of techniques have been developed to reduce or minimize the DC component in the received signal. One conventional technique utilizes a training period at start-up whereupon the DC component in the received signal is measured for one or more gain settings. After the initial training period, the receiving device uses a fixed DC offset associated with the initial measured DC component for the particular gain setting. However, it will be appreciated that the DC component present in the received signal for any given gain setting typically varies over time due to any of a variety of factors, such as the operating temperature of the components of the transmitting device or receiving device, noise in the transmission environment, and the like. Accordingly, the use of a fixed DC offset may not adequately compensate for the DC component of the received signal as the DC component of the received signal varies from the value originally measured during the initial training period. Other conventional techniques measure the DC offset on each burst during the training for the bust. However, these techniques typically require considerable hardware to perform this training, which increases both the complexity, cost and power consumption of those devices utilizing such techniques. Accordingly, an adaptive technique for compensating for a varying DC component in a received wireless signal would be advantageous.